And after a time of silence, the Brazilian quintet SEVENTH SEAL, from Santo André, SP, is back to the front, and released the new album, "Mechanical Souls", that I can see as a new beginning.

The band actualized their music to something more modern and aggressive, but without losing the melodic approach from their earlier works, so it's a traditional Heavy Metal, with great musical work, but with aggressiveness to the point to bleed non used people ears!

The vocals are excellent (Leandro Caçoilo is the band's debutant on the album), the guitars are in great shape as always, drums and bass gather together in a strong and technical rhythmic basis. The sum of all these can be described as excellent!

Produced by Thiago Oliveira, and having the mixing and mastering done by the hands of Brendan Duffay (maybe Norcal Studio is becoming a new Mecca for Brazilian Metal bands), the sound is perfect, strong, heavy and clean as their music must be. And the artwork is a reference to "Blade Runner", a fine job from Giovanny e Daniel Gava, reflecting the lyrical context: men versus machine, and the controlling of the masses by money dealers.

It's a great CD, nothing less than that, and of course your Ol' Big Daddy here is not lying or exaggerating.

The best songs: "Beyond the Sun" (great work from bass and drums, in a aggressive and melodic song), "Back to the Game" (with some grunts arising in the middle of great musical arrangements), "Souless Reality" (what guitar work here!), the beautiful "Sleepless" (great vocals, both in soft moments as in the aggressive ones), the hypnotic "Imprint Memories", and "Dreams in Green".

Hails to them for a great album, and hope the band can endure in the fight!